The Old Hall

THE OLD HALL

A house dated 1612, built for Thomas Pettus. The building is constructed of uncoursed broken flint with brick dressings and is roofed with black glazed pantiles. The south-east facade has plain toes to its gable parapets.

The principal facade faces south-east and comprises 3 bays of 2 storeys with an attic and cellar to the front. A 3-storeyed central porch projects forward with a shaped gable and unglazed black pantiles. The ground floor of the porch features stone dressings and a stone doorway with a semicircular stone arch. The arch has a pediment with finials and carries a shield displaying the Pettus arms (a fess between 3 annulets) and the date 1612. Graffiti dates of 1617 and 1638 are scratched on the left jamb. The door is part glazed in crown glass with glazing bars. The first and second floors of the porch have brick dressings with 17th-century quoined brick openings that have been infilled with brick. The first-floor opening contains a leaded cross casement under a segmental arch; the second-floor opening originally had a double leaded casement with openings to both the left and right returns, now blocked with brick and flint respectively.

The first and third bays contain much brickwork, with remains of a brick-capped plinth and a rendered moulded brick string course. A brick dentil cornice runs across. The ground floor has large recessed sashes with glazing bars (4 x 4 panes) and flat arches. The first-floor opening in the first bay contains a sash with glazing bars under a flat arch, whilst the third bay has a 3-light leaded casement under a segmental head, both set within former openings. The left return has a part external gable-end stack and 2 openings to the first and attic floors. The right return carries a large external brick stack with narrow crow-stepped offsets and 2 small attic windows.

The rear of the building is complex in plan. The right (north-east) wing consists of 2 cells of 2 storeys and an attic, with a crow-stepped gable to the right. A large cross stack to the left has 5 linked lozenge shafts, since renewed. The walls are broken flint with brick eaves courses. The ground floor has a doorway with rendered moulded brick surround to the left of the first cell, and a 3-light leaded casement window with transom and moulded brick surround to the right. The second cell has a moulded brick platband and a 6-light leaded casement with moulded mullions, transom and king mullion, containing 17th-century glass with renewed hinges. The first floor has two leaded cross windows with pintle hinges in the first cell, and a 6-light opening (as at ground floor but with original pintle hinges) in the second cell. A gabled roof dormer to the first cell lights the attic with a 3-light leaded casement. The right return has a crow-stepped gable, a part external stack with 2 octagonal shafts, and 3-light leaded casements with transoms and chamfered brick surrounds to ground and first floors, with 2 casement attic windows above.

The left (south-west) rear wing is divided into two distinct sections. A forward single bay to the right, built in English bond red brick with dentil cornice and hipped roof, has a French window to the ground floor and a recessed sash with glazing bars (4 x 4 panes) under a flat arch to the first floor. The wing to the left comprises 3 bays of 2 storeys and an attic, constructed in two phases. A dentil and saw-tooth cornice runs across. A gable-end internal stack with 4 octagonal shafts serves this section. A large stack with an octagonal shaft stands between bays 2 and 3, external to the earlier bay 3 and partially enclosed by the roof to the later bays 1 and 2, which has a lower ridge line. Fenestration is irregular and varied, including a 5-light casement with transom to bay 1 and a tripartite sash to bay 3 on the ground floor. The left return has 2 blocked openings to the first floor and attic.

Internally, the front range contains two central doorways of late 18th-century date, fitted with basket-headed fanlights with glazing bars and part-glazed doors. To the right is a large brick fireplace with a 4-centred moulded arch and wooden surround with console brackets. To the left is a classical fireplace flanked on each side by fluted Corinthian columns. The central rear turret contains a 17th-century closed-string dog-leg staircase with massive turned balusters and a large moulded frame with jewel-stopped chamfers to both ground and first floors of the turret.

The ground floor of the right rear wing's first cell has a 4-centred moulded brick fireplace and a quarter-circle moulding with stops to the window rear arch. The second cell has a shaped king mullion. The first floors and attics of the rear wings have timber-studded partitions. Moulded doorways with jewel stops occur to the attic floor and to the second floor of the central porch.